Monday 20 May 2013

When the common is defied


“When the Federation and CCODE came and introduced this project to Blantyre City Council through our Director of Planning a year or so ago, I thought it was going to be like any other project. I have heard a lot about community development and this project was about community-led slum upgrading. Therefore, I looked at this project as business as usual.”

That is how sceptical Louisa Nyalo, Community Development Officer at Blantyre City Council, was at the onset of SDI-7 Cities project. 

But she can be forgiven because in most projects, communities suffer from dependency syndrome. They always look up to outsiders for support, so why would Nyalo expect a surprise?

But the common was to be challenged, the unexpected tested and Nyalo’s thinking defied.

She accepts that the SDI-7 project has strengthened relationship between the Council and local leaders in the informal settlements. She testified that community leaders now share their plans with the council, something which was non-existent before.

“Unlike most of the projects I have seen implemented, I think there is true community participation in this project. The communities actually know why they are doing profiles, and why they have to plan their settlements,” said Nyalo.

“What has impressed me is the fact that some of the communities have started upgrading their basic infrastructure through the other projects of water and sanitation that CCODE is implementing in the City.” 

She further said communities are able to transform themselves citing Nancholi where people have improved own sanitation and access to piped water.

Ignorance retards development, says GVH Matope


Enumerating settlements before implementing developmental projects is vital because a surveyed population is better placed to demand people-oriented projects, a village leader has said.
Group Village Headman (GVH) Matope of Ndirande said this on the backdrop of Slum Dwellers International 7 Cities Project being implemented in Blantyre courtesy of Federation and CCODE.
He said the project was an eye opener recounting that previously his subjects hardly catalogued prevailing problems. He said in the absence of such information, it was difficult to demand community-oriented projects.
“For years, we thought we could see but we were too blind to notice our own problems. I am saying this because as a settlement we did not know our population. We did not know that many households had no toilets and that we only have one broken private water kiosk saving 1,836 households,” said Matope
“We only knew that diarrhoeal diseases were rife in this settlement but we never figured out a reason for that. However, this has all come out because of the enumeration, profiling and the mapping that we have done with support from CCODE and the Federation.”
The village head said it was impressive that the project equipped his area with profiles and plans saying the data remained a benchmark during discussions between the Council and communities.
He recalled a moment when leaders of informal settlements attended Participatory Budgeting Session at the City Council for the first time saying it enabled them to learn what was happening in the City.
The GVH said he was surprised when a Constituency Development Funds (CDF) expenditure report revealed that his constituency gets MK7 million for small development projects saying he wondered where that money goes.
“I was shocked to discover that our MPs are not spending this money for their own reasons. We always thought that there was no money for development projects but we now know that the money is there,” said Matope.
‘Now that we know, there is this money to fund projects like those we have identified through the enumeration, profiling and mapping exercises. The information we have will give us power to push our representatives to do more for us.”

MHPF South leader lauds SDI-7 Cities Project


Malawi Homeless People’s Federation (MHPF) has hailed the Slum Dwellers International 7 Cities project stressing it has strengthened their relationship with Blantyre City Council (BCC) and other slum dwellers abroad.
MHPF Southern Region leader Loveness Chimatiro said the project has fostered mutual partnership between BCC and slum dwellers while also giving the latter a voice in various development projects.
We have managed to support slum communities and their leadership in the City to be organised and have a voice with which to engage with the City, politicians and other development partners,” said Chimatiro.
She further said through the project, the Federation has supported over 15 settlements to do enumerations and profiles adding communities are using the data to demand services from their MPs.
“What I have liked about this project is that it has linked the slum communities to their local authority. For ages, the relationship between the two was acrimonious,” she said.
“The City believed they knew better about what communities want and communities on the other hand did not like the Council imposing its priorities on them. This lack of consensus was costly because projects never worked and if implemented people shunned them or just vandalised equipment.”
Chimatiro described the present relationship between the City and the people as “very open and cordial.”  
“The local leaders could not even dare to come to the City in the past, but today they come to share their plans, hopes and dreams with their Council. This is amazing,” she said.
Chimatiro added the SDI-7 Cities project has cemented MHPF relevance arguing communities now look at the grouping as an agent of change, a status which has led to sprouting of new centres in all settlements where Federation works.
“However, we are facing a lot of pressure from the communities that have developed their implementation plans. I wish there were resources to support the small projects like footpaths, drainage and bridges that are featuring highly on the community-shopping list,” added Chimatiro. 

Apart from Blantyre in Malawi, the SDI-7 Cities project is also being implemented in South Africa (Cape Town and Stellenbosch) Zimbabwe (Harare), Uganda (Kampala), Kenya (Nairobi), India (Pune) and Ghana (Accra).

Wednesday 15 May 2013

Baking Waste Into Wealth


Many slum dwellers do not have a lot of alternatives. With no or limited educational qualifications and access to loans to start decent businesses, they resort to informal manual labour while others take up crime. Most of them are trapped in a poverty cycle. But some, as AUSTINE JERE writes, eke out a clean living from a dirty element of Chinsapo slums in Lilongwe.

Naturally, the sight of a person at this deserted and abandoned site just outside Chinsapo Market in Lilongwe attracts inquisitive eyes. Those in a hurry would easily dismiss such person as insane.

The site is littered with plastic bags flying in the wind and flapping from shrubs like little flags.
Rhoda Siyani spends most of her days on the site. She is as sane as a church elder. Her dirty tools and clothes are a result of the work she does.

"I make manure. I cook waste. The dirt you see here is money," she said, pointing at several heaps of rubbish.

Siyani, originally from Tradition Authority Kalembo in Balaka, cannot recall when she settled in Chinsapo or when she was born. All she knows is that she grew up and married in the township.

She said she used to sell charcoal at Chinsapo Market and ventured into manure manufacturing in 2010. She grows corn and groundnuts on the family land on the northern bank of Lilongwe River and has seven children to tend to.

"Manure takes long to mature but it is more profitable than selling charcoal," said Siyani.
Every day she enters the market with an empty, dirty green bucket, tellingly certain that she has nothing to sell.

She picks and packs refuse pieces; anything dumped there, her bucket swallows; banana skins, cabbage envelops, potato stalks and peels, rotten onions and squeezed tomatoes.

"Once enough refuse is gathered, it is watered and covered with plastic bags so that it heats up and decays," she said.

The waste is thrown into an "oven," and it takes six months for the ‘dough’ to bake. Siyani said she visits the site regularly to turn the waste so that decomposition is uniform.

Siyani learnt the skills of this hidden treasure from the Centre for Community Organisation and Development (CCODE) four years ago.

As part of its sanitation and women empowerment lobby, CCODE trained some women to keep them economically oiled while simultaneously aiding the city’s cleanliness.

Initially, the women were divided into two groups, each with its own manufacturing style. One group produced manure by sieving waste while the other did it by baking.
Siyani was a member of the fist group.

"Sieved manure was less effective compared to the cooked material. So, it was not very profitable," recalled Siyani.

Expectedly, members gradually relocated to the other group until the sieving process died out.

So, Siyani is not alone in the trade; it is a dozen-member factory but each member performs individually. No wonder, the group has no name.

Siyani said previously Chinsapo Market was always filthy. The Lilongwe City Council rarely collected refuse in the township.

"Flies would be feasting and buzzing everywhere and the place was stinking," she said.

But now, Siyani has usurped the city’s duty and has done so productively. The manure she bakes is universally effective. It discriminates no crop, favours no land and denies no weather.

"The manure is more efficient than chemical fertiliser. Its effectiveness lasts at least two years," she said.

Mainly, the manure is sold to Four Seasons Nurseries in Lilongwe where botanists use it for nourishing flowers.

"A 20-litre pail sells at K150 and the entire heap can fetches about K25 000 (about $62.50)," she said.

Siyani’s family is big. She feeds and shelters seven of her children, one of whom needs school fees.

"My house was a small, grass-thatched structure, but I have expanded and iron-roofed it," she said.

Manure has enabled her to buy television and radio sets, so she no longer has to go to the neighbours for radio dramas and television soaps.

Siyani also pays school fees for her last born son at Chikhandwe Community Day Secondary School.
The business is not all rosy, though.

The manufacturing site is not spacious and it is far from water sources. Siyani draws water from Lilongwe River which is about a kilometre away.

She tries to bake more heaps during the rainy season but the space limits her as the same small piece of land has to take 12 other people who are also in the manure business.
"It’s tiresome to ascend the distance from the river to here with a water bucket on your head," she said.

After being baked, the manure needs grading as well. Siyani said buyers do not like manure mixed with stone, plastic bags and some unwanted pieces.

Siyani said all manufacturers she knows sell the product at Four Season. As a result, the seller does not determine the price, but the buyer.

She knows the effort she puts deserves more, but she remains satisfied with the current rates.

Siyani is so much in love with what she does such that she does not see herself outside the business.

The manure manufacturing project is also being implemented in Mtandire and Area 23 in Lilongwe